Fastball

In case you missed it on facebook or Goodreads, here’s the cover to How to Plan a Wedding for a Royal Spy, the next book in my Renegade Royals series. Gorgeous, isn’t it? This is book 3 in the series, and will be released in January 2014. I’ll be adding info and excerpts from the book here on the website within the next few weeks.

You heard me right! Right now I’ve got a very special offer for you lovers of contemporary romance. Three of my VK Sykes books—the sexy romances I write with my husband—are available in one beautiful anthology, currently on sale for only 99 cents!

Yep, for a limited time we’re offering three full length books for only 99 cents. The stories in this series revolve around the players on a major league baseball team, and their friends and families. It includes Fastball, Hardball, and Bigger Than Beckham. Here’s the blurb for Hardball, which recently won The Kindle Book Review Best Indie Books of 2012 Contest, in the romance category:

After years of hard work, Dr. Holly Bell has finally landed a position as a cardiac surgeon at a prestigious children’s hospital in Philadelphia. She’s always been about her dedication to work, and she’s not letting anything or anyone get in her way. And a hot affair with a superstar athlete is most definitely getting in Holly’s way.

Nate Carter, star pitcher for the Philadelphia Patriots, is at the height of his game, with a great career and the most gorgeous women in town in full pursuit. Nate has everything he wants, or at least he thinks he does, until he meets the beautiful and brainy Dr. Holly Bell. He’s totally up for a hot affair, and Holly turns out to be the hottest.

But when the lovely doctor starts changing the rules, Nate realizes he just might be playing for keeps.

Happy 2013!! Can you believe it’s a new year already? Neither can I, but I’m going to celebrate it anyway, along with over 200 bloggers and authors. We’re sharing our favorite holiday memories and stories with you, and hoping you’ll do the same. On top of that, we’re giving away a spectacular group of prizes, including individual prizes on each of our blogs.

And three grand prizes, too!

You as a reader can go to EACH blog and comment with your email address and be entered to win. Yep, you can enter over 200 times!

To be eligible to win, just leave a comment, and be sure to include your email address. The 1st and 2nd grand prizes are open to international readers, but the 3rd grand prize is U.S. based only.

So, let’s get straight to those stories! When I was a kid, our family often celebrated New Year’s Eve with the people in our neighborhood. There was a lot of great food and champagne (for the adults, of course) and the kids had fun hanging out. But the best part was the actual ringing in of the holiday at midnight. My parents gave us funny hats to wear, and noisemakers and pots and pans to bang as loudly as we wanted. We’d run outside, shrieking and yelling and banging on the pots as loud as we could. If anyone on the street was asleep, we surely woke them up!

So tell me all about it: what are some of your memories of New Year’s from your younger days. Did your family celebrate by doing anything special? One person who comments will win a copy of Fastball, one of my VK Sykes contemporary romances, and a $10 Amazon gift card. Don’t forget to leave your email address in the comment thread to be eligible for one of the grand prizes!

FASTBALL

Baseball reporter Maddie Leclair has spent years chasing her dream job—covering the major league team, the Philadelphia Patriots. Now that she’s landed the assignment she intends to make it big, with feature articles on the front page of every sports section in the country. But to do that, she needs to score an interview with the most private and elusive athlete in baseball, Patriots’ superstar Jake Miller.

On the rebound from a devastating injury that knocked him out of play for a season, Jake has a lot to prove to the suits in the head office. He’s sure he still has what it takes to win, and he’ll be damned if he lets anything get in the way of his climb back to the top of the charts.

The last thing Jake needs is a pushy female reporter distracting him. But one look at Maddie and he knows he’s in trouble. He finds himself trying for a different kind of play, one that involves bedrooms and not baseball stats. Sleeping together could damage both their careers, and Maddie is all about saying no. But when it comes to the game of love, Jake is playing to win.

Sports journalist Martha Winston loves her career, but her life goes sideways when she inherits a pro soccer team from her father. The team is almost bankrupt and on the skids, but Martha has vowed to save her beloved father’s legacy. But she needs to get a financial infusion fast, or else lose the team to the wolves baying at her door.

Former British soccer hero Tony Branch wants to add Martha’s team to his growing sports empire. But he wants it strictly on his terms. When Martha turns him down flat, he’s determined to change her mind by any means necessary. If that includes using the sexual heat flaring between them, Tony is more than willing to play a game of seduction.

Our heroine, Martha Winston, appeared in earlier previous books in the Patriots Series and she’s a bit of a firecracker. She and Tony really do heat things up! To read an excerpt from the book, stop by our website.

Bigger Than Beckhamis available in e-book from Amazon, Kobo, and in various formats on Smashwords. It should also be up on Barnes & Noble and in the iBook store very soon. Stay tuned for details!

And don’t forget that today is Day Three of the Alpha Male Blog Hop. Over 200 bloggers and authors are chatting about all the things we love about alpha male heroes. We’re giving away great prizes too – like a Kindle Fire or a Nook Tablet. On my blog, I’m giving away a copy of Bigger Than Beckham and an Amazon gift card. Just click here to start hopping!

Welcome to A Hero’s Blog Hop! We’re here to celebrate all the wonderful heroes in the romance novels we love, and to have a great time hopping from one blog to another. And when you do, you have the chance to win some wonderful prizes from the over 100 bloggers and authors who are participating in the hop.

Even better, there are THREE grand prizes. You can go to EACH blog and comment with your email address and be entered to win. Yep, you can enter over 100 times!

Now what are those prizes?

1st Grand Prize: A Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet

2nd Grand Prize: A $50 Amazon or B&N Gift Card

3rd Grand Prize: The following Swag Pack!

Pretty awesome, eh? All you have to do to win either on my blog, the other blogs, or one of the grand prizes, is to leave a comment on the blogs you drop by, which includes your email address. That’s particularly important if you want to be eligible to win one of the grand prizes.

Now that the preliminaries are out of the way, let’s talk about the man candy, er, romance heroes. As a romance writer, I have to confess that I love ALL my heroes. If I didn’t love them I don’t think I could write them – makes sense, right? So, what do I find so attractive about them? Let’s take two heroes from the sexy contemporary romances I write with my husband under the pen name of VK Sykes. That’s Jake Miller from Fastball and Nate Carter from Hardball, the first two books in our sports romance series about the fictional baseball team, the Philadelphia Patriots.

Jake and Nate are best friends but, on the surface, they’re really not much alike. Oh, sure, they’re both incredibly hot, good-looking dudes with great bodies–after all, they are professional athletes–but Jake is an all-around good guy while Nate is the classic bad boy. While Jake plays his cards close to his chest, keeps his personal life to himself and stays out of the limelight as much as he can, Nate is pretty much the opposite. He dates supermodels, drives fast cars, and lives life as hard as he pitches those curve balls over home plate. Really, when you think about it, it’s almost a miracle that Jake and Nate are such good friends.

But they do share some really important qualities, ones which are necessary to every good hero: they are loyal, decent men, they treat women with respect, and they will do whatever is required to protect the women they love from whatever threatens–even if that threat is nothing more than a big old nasty spider crawling up the wall.

Now, in both Jake and Nate’s stories, the women they love are strong and resilient and well able to take care of themselves. But Holly and Maddie, my heroines, both run into some serious trouble, and when they do their heroes are willing to move heaven and earth to help them–even if it means breaking the rules.

Handsome, sexy, loyal, respectful, great in bed–oh, did I forget to mention that quality? And willing to put their lives on the line for the women they love…what more could anyone ask for? You can check out my VK Sykes website to read excerpts from both books, and to get a taste of what my two uber-sexy heroes are like. I’m hoping you won’t be disappointed!

And now for the question! What qualities do you think are essential to any romance hero, be it a paranormal, historical, or contemporary romance kind of guy? Tell me one or two qualities that really work for you. One person who comments will win a $10 Amazon gift card.

Once you comment on my blog, just follow the link below to continue on with your hop: